Failed to load module “nvidia” (module does not exist, 0)

Question

I have nvidia GM206 (GeForce GTX960). I am using Linux Mint Rosa (Ubuntu 14.04), and recently I installed Steam. When it complained about no direct rendering, I followed instructions in Steamcommunity to edit alt_ld.so.conf in /usr/lib/nvidia-387 and /usr/lib/nvidia-387-prime. After a reboot, X failed to start, and after I reinstalled nvidia drivers I can only use 640x480 resolution, and the display is recognized as laptop (although I am on a desktop).

Now my Xorg.0.log contains:

cat /var/log/Xorg.0.log | grep nvidia
[    19.039] (==) Matched nvidia as autoconfigured driver 0
[    19.039] (==) Matched nvidia as autoconfigured driver 2
[    19.039] (II) LoadModule: "nvidia"
[    19.039] (WW) Warning, couldn't open module nvidia
[    19.039] (II) UnloadModule: "nvidia"
[    19.039] (II) Unloading nvidia
[    19.039] (EE) Failed to load module "nvidia" (module does not exist, 0)
[    19.069] (==) Matched nvidia as autoconfigured driver 0
[    19.069] (==) Matched nvidia as autoconfigured driver 2
[    19.069] (II) LoadModule: "nvidia"
[    19.070] (WW) Warning, couldn't open module nvidia
[    19.070] (II) UnloadModule: "nvidia"
[    19.070] (II) Unloading nvidia
[    19.070] (EE) Failed to load module "nvidia" (module does not exist, 0)

How can I find out why nvidia-387 fails to load nvidia module, even though it is installed?

Answer 1

Probably late to the party, but might be informative for someone.

In my case, this happened when I tried to upgrade nvidia driver to higher version. After reboot X.org did not start and dmesg had this:

[  919.938560] nvidia-nvlink: Nvlink Core is being initialized, major device number 239
[  919.939080] NVRM: The NVIDIA GeForce 9600 GT GPU installed in this system is
               NVRM:  supported through the NVIDIA 340.xx Legacy drivers. Please
               NVRM:  visit http://www.nvidia.com/object/unix.html for more
               NVRM:  information.  The 390.138 NVIDIA driver will ignore
               NVRM:  this GPU.  Continuing probe...
[  919.939086] NVRM: No NVIDIA graphics adapter found!

So I reverted the change:

apt remove nvidia-driver-390; apt autoremove  # or whatever you tried to install
apt install nvidia-340